LeBron James on Douglas High shooting: ‘How is it possible that we can have minors buy a gun?’

Cleveland’s LeBron is introduced for for the upcoming 2018 NBA All-Star game during practice (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

James, the Cavaliers superstar, and other players with ties to South Florida could not make sense of the tragedy in which a former student returned to the high school on Wednesday, killed 14 students and three teachers and wounded several others. He was arrested shortly after in the area.

The players were asked about the shooting during Saturday’s media day for All-Star Weekend.

“We have a kid who wasn’t legally unable to buy a beer at a bar, but he can go buy an AR-15?” James said “It doesn’t make sense. I’m not saying it should be legal for him to go buy beer. But how is it possible that we can have minors go buy a gun?”

Heat guard Wayne Ellington, who was fourth in Saturday’s 3-point contest, said the nation has to “come together” to makes changes so these mass shootings do not continue to occur. The shooting was the ninth deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, five of those coming in the last six years.

“I was at a loss for words,” Ellington said. “I couldn’t understand what’s going on, why (this) is going on in the world. Do we need to change? These young people doing unexplainable things, hurting each other and hurting innocent people it’s so unfortunate and sad, it’s something I don’t know how we can change but it’s something we need to come together and figure out.”

John Collins, the Atlanta Hawks rookie who graduated from Cardinal Newman High School, was calling home to try to understand what was happening.

“It was a real shock to me,” said Collins, who played in Friday’s Rising Stars Challenge. “Obviously, I never expected something like that to happen. I know a couple of people that were affected by that tragedy. You got to say your prayers and sending your condolences and thoughts to the victims.”

“We’ve seen these schools and these tragedies happen in America and there’s been no change to gun control,” said James, who will play in tonight’s All-Star Game at the Staples Center. “I don’t have the answer to this. But we have to do something about it. We’re all sending our kids to school right? We drop them off at 8 o’clock. At 3:15 they’re going to be ready to get picked up. Either we’re picking them or someone in our family is picking them up or they have to take a bus or there’s aftercare and they stay until 5. If they have study hall they stay until 5:30 or whatever. But we all feel like our kids are going to return, right?

“To the families in Parkland, down in Broward County, it’s sad and I’m sorry and it’s just a tragedy and I hope we don’t continue to see this because it’s too many in the last 10 years with guns.”